My God, the Dumpster Diver

Luke 19:10. “For the
Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”

It’s true: your father and I are dumpster divers!

When
Dad and I were newly married we used to take a walk almost every night. It was
our favorite part of the day and we would stroll all around Lake Hiawatha, New
Jersey, while we dreamed about the rest of our lives. Often on the weekly garbage night, we would find special treasures hidden in other people’s trash.

One Saturday evening we came
upon the dumpster in our apartment complex and saw that someone must have had a
garage sale and discarded all that hadn’t sold. We started our search and found
several fun and useful items that we took home. Today we still have the
Trivial Pursuit game that we pulled from the dumpster that night. Somebody
else’s trash became our treasure.

In
Jesus’ time as well as today people tend to put other human beings in
categories. “Those people are wealthy and important. Those people are talented
and influential. Those people are beautiful and famous. Those people are
worthless and ‘trash.’”

The
Pharisees were considered to be the rich and famous of Bible times. They also
were very influential in all areas of politics and religion, yet they did
not recognize Jesus for who He was, the Son of God. They despised Him and
sought a way to get rid of Him. They did not want to relinquish their power
and prestige to anyone, not even the Creator of the universe. They thumbed their
noses at every person they deemed unworthy and discarded anyone whom they
considered “trash.”

Jesus
is not like this at all. He sees all people as what they are – sinners loved greatly by God. When confronted with those who despised and found fault
with Him for spending time with loose women, tax collectors, and other society cast-a-ways, His response was, “the Son of Man came to seek and save those
who are lost.” He did not come to save those who feel they are special and
worthy. He came for those who recognize their sinfulness and their need for His
saving grace. The Pharisees ‘“trash” became Jesus’ “treasures.”

If you ever feel like you’ve been treated badly and discarded by the proud of
this world, or if you believe your sin is too great to be forgiven, just
remember – our God is a dumpster diver . . . and you are the treasure He is seeking.